(YoungBiz)
- It's an age-old question: What would you do for money? As a
business owner, it becomes more than just a philosophical query to
mull over with friends. Your answer will determine the guidelines
and expectations you'll bring to your company.

If you think about what sells--all those products that
advertisers push as "cool" and "in"--you know
that what's hot doesn't always jibe with your values.
That's why it's so important to identify your company's
core values--the philosophy that guides your company's
direction--from the get-go.

Next Step

A good ethics policy should be
integrated into your company's culture. Find out how.

Every company has a culture that determines everything from the
way you'll handle customer service to the kinds of products or
services your company will offer. So how do you convey your company
culture?

What Are Your Core
Values?
Entrepreneurs can't just talk about values. They have
role-model the culture they want reflected in their companies.

That's exactly what Leslie Shoup does. Shoup, 18, owner of
Leslie's Xpresly Sportswear in Orrville, Ohio, values customer
service above all else. Talking about customer service is fine, but
Shoup shows her commitment by staying open late to finish a project
on time or personally delivering clothes to customers.
"It's our duty to keep customers happy," she says.
"We try to get everything to the customer on time--even if it
means staying open until midnight."

As the business owner, your influence will be key to creating
your company's culture. It will also be nurtured by how your
staff models those values on a day-to-day basis. Making sure the
business's products or services and its associates stick to
those core values takes careful and deliberate planning, not just
at the beginning, but throughout the evolution of your company.

That commitment is a top priority for Keisha McDaniel, the
15-year-old owner of Pretty Tomboy Clothing in Las Vegas. By age
10, McDaniel was already 5 feet 5 inches, 160 pounds, and wore
boys' clothing because girls' clothing didn't fit
her.

That's how the label Pretty Tomboy was created. "We
design clothes for the not-so-average girl," McDaniel says of
the core values that drive her company. "We want to give
athletic girls a choice."

The clothes reflect McDaniel's philosophy: Be yourself or
please everyone else. "The average teenager wants to do what
everyone else is doing," she says. "But if you do that,
you're not being yourself."

Avoiding
Temptation
As a company expands, profit motives and new employees can sway
young 'treps from the company's philosophy. That's when
it's more important than ever for entrepreneurs to stay true to
their core values. In the past five years, as McDaniel's
business has grown and she's added a few outside designers. She
has made it a top priority that her new contract employees both
understand and buy into her company's mission.

Like McDaniel, Shoup will continue to emphasize the guiding
values of her company as it grows larger. It's these values
that will allow both businesses--and businesses that follow their
example--to achieve long-term success.